In the data compiled by the Council of Europe for the year 2020, we see that France is one of the countries which apply probation sentences a lot, but without this having an impact on prison sentences. Unlike countries like the Netherlands or Belgium which imprison less.
France is increasingly resorting to suspended probation, electronic bracelets, community service… 168,119 people were affected by these measures in September, while there were 69,992 incarcerated in December.
Researchers have collected the words of these sentenced to “open environment”. Penalties which, if they make it possible to avoid the bodily and psychological violence of confinement, produce a penal reconfiguration of daily life “to drive mad”, according to the convicts, because while aiming at reintegration, they involve a lot of constraints on a daily basis: prohibition “to exercise such and such a profession, to take the car, to move, to leave the country, to frequent such and such a place, such and such a person, etc.”